Who was Warner Robins, for whom an Air Force base in Georgia was named? "To write a story about General Robins is to write abut the `Olden Days'" his widow has remarked, "for Warner Robins was not in the Air Force as it is today." No, but he helped to form the Air Force as it is today. His professional life developed along with the air service during that brave and daring era between the two World Wars. As author William Head explains, Robins was "one of those courageous few who left an indelible mark on today's Air Force." As a West Point cadet (1903-1907), Augustine Warner Robins numbered among his classmates and friends Hap Arnold and Frank Andrews. As a young officer, he fought under Black Jack Pershing in Mexico and met a young George Patton and Ben Foulois. As a senior officer, he worked with such luminaries of the day as Charles A. Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, Lester Maitland, Orville Wright, and Billy Mitchell. Even more significantly, during his career he was instrumental in developing the first official and workable Air Force supply maintenance and accountability system. He helped establish official guidelines for training of logistics officers, NCOs, and civilians working for the Army Air Corps. Robins's life provides, through his thousands of letters, telephone transcripts, and other primary materials, a unique window on the interward period, and especially on the history of aviation in America. Through his eyes, the events and personalities of the 1920s and 1930s--which shaped the Air Force of World II and the Cold War--come into sharp focus. The anecdotes and sometimes humorous stories of the building of this branch of the service make this a book not just for historians, but for all those interested in the military and in aviation.

The Great War: From Memory to History offers a new look at the multiple ways the Great War has been remembered and commemorated through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Drawing on contributions from history, cultural studies, film, and literary studies this collection offers fresh perspectives on the Great War and its legacy at the local, national, and international levels. More importantly, it showcases exciting new research on the experiences and memories of “forgotten” participants who have often been ignored in dominant narratives or national histories. Contributors to this international study highlight the transnational character of memory-making in the Great War’s aftermath. No single memory of the war has prevailed, but many symbols, rituals, and expressions of memory connect seemingly disparate communities and wartime experiences. With groundbreaking new research on the role of Aboriginal peoples, ethnic minorities, women, artists, historians, and writers in shaping these expressions of memory, this book will be of great interest to readers from a variety of national and academic backgrounds.

Timothy Gowing, Sergeant-Major of the Royal Fusiliers in this book shares his personal experience during the war. He shares the impact of rank among militants. An excerpt from the introductory part of the book reads this "Great Britain has produced a race of heroes who, in moments of danger and terror, have stood as "firm as the rocks of their native shores," and when half the world has been arrayed against them have fought the battles of their country with heroic fortitude. We have written with no wish to foster a bellicose spirit, for we regard war as an evil that is only endurable when the cause is just. But no love of peace should deaden our admiration of brilliant deeds and unquailing heroism. War, like peace, has its virtues, which only a fanatic will under-value."

Otto of Schlepsig is risking his neck as an acrobat in a third-rate circus in the middle of nowhere when news arrives that the land of Shqiperi has invited Prince Halim Eddin to become its new king. Otto doesn’t know the prince from Adam, but he does happen to look just like him—a coincidence that inspires Otto with a mad plan to assume Halim’s identity and rule in his stead. True, Shqiperi is an uncivilized backwater, but even in uncivilized backwaters kings live better than acrobats. Plus, kingship in Shqiperi comes with a harem. Rank, as they say, has its privileges. With his friend Max, a sword-swallowing giant whose chronic cough makes every performance a potential tonsillectomy, Otto embarks on a rollicking journey filled with feats of derring-do, wondrous magic, and beautiful maidens—well, beautiful women. And that’s before he enters a royal world that is truly fantastical.